Southlands Creche

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are well cared for in this nurturing and homely environment. They receive lots of cuddles and reassurance throughout their day.

This helps them to build strong attachments with their key person. During play, children seek out staff members to share their experiences. For example, children express sheer delight in jumping in puddles and getting wet.

They share their enjoyment with staff as they hold their hands beckoning them to join in. The setting boasts a wealth of outdoor learning opportunities for the children. Children go out on trips every day.

They explore the local community and the wider worl...d that we live in. While out on trips, the children follow instructions and learn how to keep themselves safe. The setting offers swimming lessons, yoga and dance.

These experiences encourage healthy lifestyle choices and support children to develop their physical strength. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported. Staff use regular assessments to help identify when children need additional help.

They are competent in making referrals and work well with external agencies. Parents are well informed and work very closely with the setting to help promote the best possible outcomes for children.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

Children are happy and excited throughout their day.

They thoroughly enjoy their learning environment. Children have a good range of age- and stage-appropriate activities to explore, both indoors and outdoors. Routines are well embedded.

Children know to wash their hands before dinner time and do so independently. Children behave incredibly well, especially at dinner time. Younger children sit at the table and engage in singing familiar songs about farm animals while they wait for their dinner.

Older children enjoy the responsibility of serving dinner to their friends.Children enjoy a sensory activity based on a familiar book. Staff read the story as children explore the inviting resources on offer.

Children explore the different textures and smells of herbs, chocolate, mud, water and cotton wool. Staff pause the story at different intervals to invite conversations from the children. For example, staff read 'We can't go through it, we can't go over it, we have to…' and children complete the sentence and declare 'go through it'.

This shows children are familiar with the story and can use prior knowledge appropriately. However, during group activities, some children are easily distracted by other experiences on offer, quickly loose interest and move away.Children laugh and giggle as they play with logs and dinosaurs.

They stack up the small logs and make stands for the dinosaurs. Staff support learning by handing over more logs to make a bigger tower. Children delight in watching the log towers fall as they place the dinosaurs on top.

However, occasionally, staff miss opportunities to adapt their teaching and extend children's learning experiences even further.Children develop confidence and self-esteem and are motivated to learn. They thoroughly enjoy completing jigsaw puzzles.

They concentrate and work out how to manoeuvre each piece into the correct position. Once they complete jigsaws of a certain number, they are then challenged with jigsaws that have more pieces. Children are happy with their achievements and declare 'yes, I've done it'.

They share their excitement with staff and visitors.Parents are very happy with their children's learning and development and explain that they appreciate the varied trips that their children go on. They feel well supported by the staff and key persons to continue to promote their children's learning at home.

Parents comment about their children thriving in this loving and caring environment. They say that the setting is very flexible and considers the needs of the parents as well as their children.Leaders and managers are passionate about the care and service that they provide.

Staff's well-being is paramount and they are offered a wide variety of experiences to boost morale, including yoga sessions and a counselling service. Staff report that they are happy and feel at home at the setting. This contributes to an extremely low turnover of staff.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Managers and staff are competent in identifying the different signs and symptoms of abuse. They know who to contact if they are concerned about the welfare of a child in their care and how to report concerns if they are worried about the conduct of other staff members.

Regular risk assessments are carried out and steps taken to ensure the premises remain safe and secure. The manager follows robust recruitment procedures, and ensures the ongoing suitability of the staff working at the setting.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nenhance the organisation of group activities and tasks to enable children to fully engage in experiences support staff to raise their expectations and adapt their teaching to enrich experiences that continually build on children's learning.

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